Can I trust Taurus?

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Newton

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I just can't bring myself to part with the kind of $ that Smith & Wesson is asking for its revolvers these days, and I'm thinking Taurus maybe.

I'm looking for a good 4 inch .357 Magnum in blue.

So can they be trusted to deliver a quality product?
 
Have you considered a Ruger? I love my GP100 and SP101 (a fixed-sight 3" 5-shooter). A NIB GP100, blue, will run you about $425 - a little more than Taurus, but still WAY under Smith prices. Ruger's hell for stout (to borrow from Skeeter Skelton) and will handle anything you want to run through it.

Just a thought...

Q
 
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I'd get a Ruger or S&W. Are they worth more than the Taurus? YES IMHO. You get what you pay for.

I prefer the tolerances & trigger on the S&W.
 
I have had 6 different Taurus revolvers: 445, 450, 455, 650, 941, 905. All snubbies of various calibers.

All had problems. The most common problems were failures to fire, cases sticking in cylinders, and freezing up. After #5 gave me trouble, I sold the 6th new in the box without even firing it.

I've finally learned. Sold all but #5 (will sell it when I work out the problems).

They look nice on the outside and seem well made. The triggers feel good. They are accurate, IMO.

They are unreliable out of the box IMO. I would not rely on one for personal defense.
 
They are unreliable out of the box IMO. I would not rely on one for personal defense.
Click to expand...

That has been my experience too. It (.357 Gaucho) works great now that I had a local gunsmith fix all the problems it never should have left the factory with. It seemed like the parts were made well enough, but then just thrown together with no hand-fitting or tuning at all. I like the gun, but I don't have enough rounds thru it yet to trust it.

I'd buy another Taurus, but only if I got a good enough deal on it to allow for spending another $50 or so fixing all the defects. I'd trust a used one more than I'd trust a new one, but only if the used one had enough wear that I could see it had really been used and not just someone else's new lemon.
 
I've had several Taurus revolvers. Didn't have any problems with any of them. Can you trust one? Only you can answer that after you try one.
 
Personally I think its a crap shoot. I have seen some that are so loose and sloppy right out of the box I would be afraid to shoot them, I have had three that were great guns and gave me zero problems after many rounds fired.
They were:

.44 SPL 2" titanium
.22 Model 93
.45 acp 4" tracker

I wish I would have kept the .44 but got to good of a $$ offer to pass up.
Traded the .22 and some cash for a Smith model 18 in same caliber.
Traded the tracker to my son as I already have two Smith .45 revovlers not because there was anything wrong with it and he wanted a .45 revolver.

So I guess it depends how lucky you feel, when it comes to pickin a gun.
My opinion, go Ruger or Smith.
 
esq_stu said:
I have had 6 different Taurus revolvers: 445, 450, 455, 650, 941, 905. All snubbies of various calibers.

All had problems. The most common problems were failures to fire, cases sticking in cylinders, and freezing up. After #5 gave me trouble, I sold the 6th new in the box without even firing it.

I've finally learned. Sold all but #5 (will sell it when I work out the problems).

They look nice on the outside and seem well made. The triggers feel good. They are accurate, IMO.

They are unreliable out of the box IMO. I would not rely on one for personal defense.
Click to expand...

if you had that many problems with taurus guns, why did you get 6 of them???

i've never owned a taurus, but after about one or two problems, i would've learned my lesson....
 
This is a question that comes up time and time again on all the gun forums. Did you ever notice that nobody ever posts a thread asking if they can trust a Ruger/Smith/Sig/Beretta...?

If you have to ask you probably will not have faith in the gun when you get it. Buy a good used S&W or Ruger.
 
If you are price sensitive, go check used prices. Most guns are bought, make one trip to the range (sometimes not even that), then go into a drawer.

To me, the best value in handguns out there right now is a 4" S&W 357 model 586 (blue) or 686 (stainless). In these days of the internet, a clean one is about $425 anywhere in the country, another $40 to deliver it to your FFL and transfer it into your hands. Or check out guns shows and pawn shops locally, if you have the option. Nice S&W model 28's are about the same price, too.
 
I have 2 Taurus revolvers (627 and 85) and one auto (MilPro PT-145). I have not had a single issue with any of them.
 
I have nothing against the Taurus handguns. I have never owned one. But I read the threads about Taurus on many sites. There seem to be as many happy Taurus owners as there are disappointed Taurus owners. That is not a ratio that encourages me to make a purchase.

Yes, all manufacturers have lemons...but not at that rate. If you post a thread asking if you can feel confident in a Ruger/Smith, etc., I think the answers will be overwhelmingly positive. Taurus and Charter Arms questions keep coming up.
 
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I have Taurus handguns made from 1988 to 2006. The trigger on revolvers is not as good as a S&W. I trust all of them.
 
IMO... go elsewhere for the $. My father in law has a Taurus 44 (dunno model) and he likes it but the trigger seems funny to me. I just went through the same dilemma as you in January. I wanted 4" .357 but stainless. I opted to spend the extra $75 for a NIB Ruger GP100. LOVE IT! Full disclosure... I opted for the Ruger after many posts like this one and because it felt better in my hand then the 'ribber' grips on the Taurus.
 
The only problems with taurus is that they make guns that look like very popular SW models.
SO alot of the lampooning on quality comes from people who expect a new taurus snubnose to shoot, feel, and be just like their identical looking SW revolver that was made 50 years ago. Heck, even SW cant manage that themselves nowadays.

Taurus safety device to date is not been reported to activate itself when using heavy recoiling ammo in alloy frames, unlike SW. Nor did the Taurus alloy frames launch barrels down range like SW scandiums did for a while.

Some people have to understand all revolvers are liable to suffer sticking and hard extraction. Heck different ammo, and different chamber tolerances, even amount of crud in chamber affects that. And as far as trigger goes, well thats important but if you want to help yourself its call remove the sideplate and blow the crap out of it.
Ive read alot of posts and magazine articles where alot of gunsmiths put their kids thorugh college by doing action jobs on smith and wesson products, and on ruger products too. Thats probably why those gunsmiths wont do work on a taurus, they make enough money off everyother gun sompany around.

as to trusting taurus handguns, well test ammunition till you get a brand that goes bang everytime. if you use the same cartridge number in a sw, ruger, and a taurus, as long as the barrels are the same length and the cartridge fires, SW and Ruger wont make the bullet work better downrange.
 
The question you should ask yourself is this:

Do you trust the people in this thread to make the decision for you?


Personally, I think my brother's Taurus 627 runs great.
 
Bezoar said:
as to trusting taurus handguns, well test ammunition till you get a brand that goes bang everytime
Click to expand...

When I first got mine, it would go bang without me even pulling the trigger! The first (and only) AD scared the sh! outta me. The gun was pointed down range and sort-of on target, so it wasn't a big deal, but it could have been. That was an easy fix; a burr on the cylinder pin kept it from locking in place, and after a couple of recoils it backed out 1/8" -- causing the gun to get out-of-time pretty badly. [I figured this out when I got back home] Somehow that allowed the hammer to slip off of the sear as soon as I *touched* the trigger. I unloaded the gun, cocked it again, and touched the back of the hammer and the hammer fell. I loaded the gun again and shot it a few more times before I packed up and went home (being careful to not even cock the hammer until the gun was on target.) It wasn't much fun. Sometimes it would go off just from touching the trigger, and sometimes I had to pull the trigger really hard to get it to fire. The "really hard" pull turned out to be a totally different problem with the transfer bar jamming against the back of the firing pin because they hadn't fitted the firing pin properly.

Since this was a new gun, I called Taurus to get a return authorization to get it repaired, and the receptionist put me on hold and never came back. [I paid a local gunsmith $35 to fit the firing pin, inspect my work on the cylinder pin, and go over the whole gun looking for other hidden problems]

What brand of ammo do you suggest in this situation, since it's obvious that's what the problem was? No, the problem was poor quality control on what could be a good product, and non-existent customer service.
 
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You will find many posts here on THR that state that Taurus makes a good gun, but only AFTER you pay to have a gunsmith go over it and fix all the kinks.

By the time you buy the gun and pay the gunsmith, you might as well have bought that S&W, 'cause that's how about much money you'll be in the hole.
 
Never a problem over 10 years with a Taurus 606 in .357. Well, OK. Sometimes I have a hard time finding the right holster for it. But other than that, the Taurus is great. I'd own another, no problems.
 
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